Across 10,000 resident satisfaction surveys, grounds and common area upkeep was the second most common complaint in apartment communities. Pet waste sits in the middle of it.
Originally published to our Facebook and Instagram on September 14, 2026.
When a property manager hears "pet waste," the mental filing cabinet usually puts it under amenities, next to the dog wash station and the pet fee. That is the wrong drawer, and the reason it matters shows up in the survey data.
J Turner Research analyzed 10,000 resident satisfaction surveys from apartment communities. Grounds and common area upkeep came back as the second most common complaint. Only rent ranked higher. Pet waste and off-leash pets made the top ten on their own.
Read those two findings together. Pet waste is not competing for attention with the pool or the fitness center. It sits inside the category residents already complain about more than almost anything else on the property. Every pile on a walking path is a grounds complaint waiting for a resident to write it down.
Here is the part that surprises most managers on a walkthrough. Most grounds contracts cover mowing and sometimes the stations. They almost never cover collection across the common areas. So waste sits where it lands until the mower reaches it, and then the mower spreads it across everything it touches.
Stations get missed too, and that one you can verify in about sixty seconds. Walk out and check whether yours are stocked right now. If they are empty, residents have been walking past them and leaving waste on the ground for however long that dispenser has been bare.
None of that is the landscaper's fault. It is not in the scope. Nobody is contracted to touch it, so nobody does, and the grounds line on the next survey absorbs the result.
Moving pet waste from the amenity column to the maintenance column changes two things.
First, it changes where the budget comes from. Amenity spending is discretionary and gets cut first. Grounds maintenance is a line the property already pays for, and adding scheduled collection to it costs a few dollars per unit per month.
Second, it changes what the manager has on file. A scheduled service closes every visit with an after-service report: areas covered, stations restocked, how much came off the property, and any grounds issues spotted along the way. When the survey comes back or a resident complains, the property has a dated record that the grounds were serviced, not a memory of asking the landscaper about it.
Residents rank grounds second. Pet waste is the part of the grounds nobody is contracted to handle. A scheduled program takes the whole category off the list, and the report proves it every week.
If you manage a community in Columbus, Harris County, or Fort Benning, the walkthrough is free and takes about twenty minutes. You leave with a flat monthly number and a per-unit cost.
Homeowners get a number the same day. Property managers get a free walkthrough and a written per-unit estimate.
Get a Quote